“Artificial Respiration is intellectually explosive, artistically refreshing and aesthetically ambitious. . . . Not since Julio Cortazar’s Hopscotch has a book from south of the border offered such [a] shocking reassessment of Hispanic history and collective identity.” — Ilan Stavans, The Nation

Reviews

“Artificial Respiration is intellectually explosive, artistically refreshing and aesthetically ambitious. . . . Not since Julio Cortazar’s Hopscotch has a book from south of the border offered such [a] shocking reassessment of Hispanic history and collective identity.” —Ilan Stavans, The Nation

"Sometime ago I wrote in the New York Times Book Review that it was a shame that Artificial Respiration by Ricardo Piglia, one of the most important Latin American novels of the last decade, was unavailable in English. Now it can finally be read, enjoyed, and celebrated by readers in this country. It will be an intellectual experience you will never forget" — Ariel Dorfman

Permission to Photocopy (coursepacks)

If you are requesting permission to photocopy material for classroom use, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center at copyright.com;

Permission to Reprint

If you are requesting permission to reprint DUP material (journal or book selection) in another book or in any other format, contact our Copyrights & Permissions Manager (use Contact Information listed below).

Images/Art

Many images/art used in material copyrighted by Duke University Press are controlled, not by the Press, but by the owner of the image. Please check the credit line adjacent to the illustration, as well as the front and back matter of the book for a list of credits. You must obtain permission directly from the owner of the image. Occasionally, Duke University Press controls the rights to maps or other drawings. Please direct permission requests for these images to permissions@dukeupress.edu.
For book covers to accompany reviews, please contact the publicity department.

Subsidiary Rights/Foreign Translations

If you're interested in a Duke University Press book for subsidiary rights/translations, please contact permissions@dukeupress.edu. Include the book title/author, rights sought, and estimated print run.

Disability Requests

Instructions for requesting an electronic text on behalf of a student with disabilities are available here.

Description

Acclaimed as one of the most important Latin American novels in recent decades, Artificial Respiration is a stunning introduction for English readers to the fiction of Ricardo Piglia. Published in Argentina in 1981, it was written at a time when thousands of Argentine citizens "disappeared" during the government’s attempt to create an authoritarian state. In part a reflection on one of the most repressive and tragic times in Argentine history, this is one of those rare works of fiction in which multiple philosophical, political, and narrative dimensions are all powerfully and equally matched. As a prize winning detective novel, Artificial Respiration reaches through many levels of mystery to explore the forces that have been at play in Argentina throughout its violent history. The narrator, a writer named Renzi, begins to look for an uncle who has vanished, a man he knows only through a web of contradictory family stories and an exchange of letters. Through these letters he learns about his uncle’s research into the life of Enrique Ossario, secretary to the 19th-century Argentine dictator Rosas and spy for the dictator’s enemy. As Renzi’s search leads further into his uncle’s work and to conversations with his literary and chess-playing friends, the reader is led by Piglia to consider the nature of Argentine identity, its literature and history, and its relation, for example, to Europe, exile, and democracy. Finally, and made most vividly appreciable by the retelling of a story in which Kafka meets Hitler, it is the encounter between literature and history that is explored.

About The Author(s)

Ricardo Piglia currently lives in Argentina and is the author of three novels and a collection of short stories, for which he won the Casa de las Américas Prize. Artificial Respiration is his first book in English. His other books have been translated into Portuguese, French, Italian, and German. Daniel Balderston is Professor and Chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Tulane University and author of Out of Context: Historical Reference and the Representation of Reality in Borges, also published by Duke University Press.